Highland Senior Open
Highland Open Completion brings Shetland Fencers success
A group of 11 Shetland fencers travelled to Elgin with their coach, Phil Hibbert, to compete in the Highland Senior Open, a competition with the biggest entry list in Scotland this year:
Our more experienced fencers started confidently and soon adjusted to the higher competition level again. Mhairi Gifford fenced very well in both the foil and the epee, gaining 3rd places for bronze medals in both weapons. She lost to Lee, from Hong Kong in the epee semi final and to Chloe Campbell, from Edinburgh in the foil. Matthew Blance, fenced impressively in a competitive field of 54 in the epee to finish in 6th place. In the foil event on Sunday, Matthew still finished high up in the rankings but his progress was halted when he came up against an experienced fencer who had travelled from Philadelphia!
This competition is open to over 13’s and our younger fencers were competing at this higher level to gain valuable
experience. They not only fenced 2 full days over 2 weapons unlike many who just compete on one day, but had to test themselves against fencers from as far away as Canada, USA and Japan and ex internationals. They all impressed their coach by competing over 2 full days including a secondary event each day. The results were not of primary concern, the experience being the main goal, but Ronin Tulloch deserves congratulations on finishing 34th in a field of 54 in the epee.
The Shetland fencers were: Mhairi Gifford, Matthew Blance, Thomas Angus, 15, Christopher Brown, 15. Balthazar Holbourn, 15, Jason Hughson, 14, Dexter March, 16, Arion Mavroudis, 15, Robert Swift, 17, Ronin Tulloch, 15 and Harrison Wylie, 13.
